KSC-2011-8089

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The mobile launcher, or ML, nears the base of Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, away from the protection of the pad's three 600-foot-tall lightning masts. The ML is making the 4.2-mile trek back to the park site near the Vehicle Assembly Building. Data on the ML collected from structural and functional engineering tests during its two-week stay on the pad will be used in the next phases of construction. The 355-foot-tall ML structure, which took about two years to construct, will be modified by NASA’s 21st Century Ground Systems Program to support NASA’s Space Launch System, the heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronauts into deep space on future exploration missions. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston